The tragic losses dealt to American Samoans by last week's tsunami are rightly calling forth assistance from the full complement of federal relief agencies.

But as the media spotlight focuses on American Samoa, it would be reprehensible if the U.S. territory's more fundamental problems escape public attention.

The per capita income of American Samoa is under $6,000, with 61 percent of the population living in poverty. In May 2007, recognizing the plight of American Samoans, the U.S. Congress passed the Fair Minimum Wage Act, requiring annual 50-cent wage gains until the Samoan minimum equals the Mainland rate. However, those gains are in jeopardy from the territory's Chamber of Commerce and tuna processing plants, whose complaints have led the governor there to petition President Obama to roll back minimum wage increases and reinstate a system that has continually denied higher wages.

American Samoans have paid a high price for the poverty inflicted upon them by special interests and wayward politicians. The territory's population has a life span five years shorter than that in the United States. Substandard medical care offers little hope for many in need. Almost 40 percent of residents do not have adequate indoor plumbing, and problems with sick, untended dogs and improperly managed pig waste have threatened resident health.

Half the population is under age 20; 39 percent is under 15. Education levels are abysmal, with close to 90 percent below basic U.S. achievement levels in mathematics, reading and science, and 68 percent below in writing.

American Samoa has one of the world's fastest-growing populations, having almost doubled between 1980 and 2000. It is predicted to double again over the next 30 to 40 years. With an area of just 76 square miles and 65,000 people, if current trends continue, the island infrastructure, social services, cultural integrity and tropical environment will be overwhelmed.

Although the tuna canneries are American Samoa's largest private employers, most American Samoans consider their low-wage jobs undesirable. As a result, the canneries fill the great majority of their positions with emigrants from the predominantly agricultural nation of Samoa, 40 miles offshore. That leaves working for the American Samoa government or enlisting in the military as the only significant sources of employment.

With the tuna industry cutting jobs and one plant planning to close, the governor has proposed that the territorial government purchase and operate that plant. Samoa's U.S. Congressional representative has called upon the Government Accountability Office to study the minimum wage situation, and he introduced legislation to obtain subsidies for tuna processing in American Samoa.

Maintaining the territory's tuna industry would help support many businesses that rely on its expenditures, and villages that rent space to visiting workers. But taking steps to keep the tuna industry should not mean continued low wages and an excuse to ignore essential needs.

American Samoans once constituted the isolated, casual society of Margaret Mead's anthropology. Detachment from the rest of the world has been stripped away by television, movies, and travel to Hawai'i and the Mainland. Adjusting Samoan culture of communal life to coexist with the Western value of individualism places a heavy burden on the territory's youth, while demands of today's global economy threaten the viability of its workforce. The strains created by these forces have resulted in large increases in juvenile crime, drug use, and cases of child abuse, depression and suicide.

American Samoans are a brave and proud people who have contributed much. Their mettle has been tested on fields of the National Football League and, more importantly, on U.S. battlefields. Per capita, American Samoans die in Iraq and Afghanistan at a higher rate than troops from anywhere else in the United States or U.S. territories.

As the White House examines the governor's petition, the GAO conducts its study and new proposals are weighed, analyses must reach beyond Samoa's tuna plants and seek solutions for the territory's basic problems.

At a minimum, unprecedented investments in education and training must be made and recruitment of higher-wage industries accomplished before population growth and inaction lead to inevitable suffering. Without such action, when the tsunami damage is repaired, the fate of American Samoans will still be in serious doubt.

The Samoan people have always accepted their lot as proud Americans. We must earn their trust by giving them the tools they need to reach acceptable living standards.

Alan Moss is the author of "Selling Out America's Democracy: How Lobbyists, Special Interests and Campaign Financing Undermine the Will of the People," and a novel, "Island of Betrayal," due out next year. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.